The Texas Shootout

Violence Exposes Insufficiency Of Cultist's Beliefs

March 04, 1993

Let the theologians, in search of legitimacy, sort through the brand of religion David Koresh espouses, but this point should go uncontested. When the time came for Jesus Christ to face his persecutors, he surrendered peacefully, did not contest their charges and suffered a painful death. When one of his followers cut off an ear of a servant of the high priest, Christ healed the injury.

Koresh, leader of the Branch Davidian cult, has not chosen to follow that particular model. When a force from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms came to arrest him on firearms charges, it met a hail of gunfire that claimed the lives of four agents.

As of this writing, Koresh was still holed up in his 77-acre compound. He is not much of a role model for future zealots who wind up in standoffs with police; he reneged on a deal to surrender immediately if he were given free reign to spout his views over radio and television stations. Sooner or later, Koresh and his followers are going to have to account for the deaths of this week and explain a few other things, such as his alleged propensity to sexually abuse children.

The officials behind Sunday's botched raid have some explaining to do as well. The deaths of the agents are mute testimony to planning that failed to pay off.

The rest of society can ponder the larger philosophical questions of what makes people susceptible to the pull of a charlatan such as Koresh. While the law enforcement toll from the raid is unusual, the willingness of a cult leader's followers to defend him to the death is not. The demise of Koresh's cult leaves behind far more questions than answers.